The present invention is directed generally to the monitoring arts and more particularly to a monitor for complex machinery such as agricultural machinery. While the invention is useful for monitoring the operation of any of a broad variety of machines, the disclosure will be facilitated by specific reference to a field seed planter or grain drill.
A framer engaged in the mechanized planting of seeds or grain generally utilizes a seed planting machine pulled behind a tractor or the like. Modern seed planting machines generally include a plurality of individual planting units which receive seed or grain from one or more hoppers and distribute the seed to individual rows for planting, so that a plurality of rows may be planted in a single pass over the field. In the planting of such crops as corn or soybeans, the planting machine may include as few as four to as many as twenty-four individual planting units, while machinery for planting grain crops such as wheat may include as many as forty or more individual planting units.
Many arrangements have been heretofore proposed for monitoring the operation of a plurality of such individual planting units in the planting machine and providing a suitable display or other observable indication thereof to a console conveniently mounted to be observed in the tractor cab. The systems heretofore provided, however, have generally required a separate signal lead or wire from a sensor unit associated with each planting unit back to the cab-mounted console.
While such an arrangement has proven quite useful for the planting of corn or soybean seeds in planting machines containing up to 24 planting units, the additional wiring requirements for typical grain drill machines containing 40 or more planting units has presented some difficulty. For example, the proper cabling and interconnection of 40 or more such separate signal leads would prove quite cumbersome and difficult in field assembly of such a monitoring system for all but the highly skilled technician. However, provision of a pre-assembled package of cables and connectors for accommodating such a large number of leads may be economically unfeasable due to the expense it would add to the purchase price of such a preassembled monitoring system. Moreover, since various makes and models of planting machinery and tractors would require different lengths of cables and different configurations of leads, cables and connectors, it would be difficult if not impossible to provide a suitable preassembled cable and connector package for any conceivable arrangement or combination of equipment upon which the monitoring system is to be installed.
Additionally, such a complex cabling and connector arrangement might lead not only to error in the proper assembly of the monitoring equipment in the first instance but also to an increased frequency of equipment failure or malfunction in the field. Moreover, a farmer faced with such equipment failure might well find it difficult or impossible to locate and remedy the source of the equipment malfunction, without the aid of a skilled technician. Since the purpose of such large-scale, multiple row planting equipment is to maximize the acreage which may be planted during the optimum time in the planting season, such an increased frequency of equipment malfunction and the relatively time-consuming repair procedure is clearly undesirable.